Enhancing Digital Marketing with Third-Party Branding (3PB)

At Pilothouse, we recently explored the power of third-party branding (3PB) to boost campaign performance across multiple clients. Our findings reveal that 3PB can dramatically enhance cost efficiency, engagement, and overall results.

Key Insights:

1. Relatable Third-Party Brands Excel: Third-party brands that align closely with top-performing customer personas significantly outperformed more generic options. Tailoring tone and content style to specific personas was key to success.

2. Cost Efficiency: Third-party branded content achieved a cost per acquisition (CPA) that was half of what we saw with branded content, allowing for better budget allocation and more creative testing.

3. Improved Engagement Metrics: Content from third-party brands saw better click-through rates (CTR) and lower cost per click (CPC) compared to other ad content, creating a more engaging and cost-effective approach.

4. Know Your Audience: Success with 3PB hinges on understanding your customer persona. Utilize tools like Meta custom reports and GA4 to gather insights on demographics, interests, and platform preferences.

5. Example Persona Application: Let’s say your key persona is males in their 50s, interested in the outdoors and cooking. For a cookbook campaign, you might create content that reflects their environment (like summer outdoor settings), aligns with their interests (such as wilderness cooking videos), and matches the content they engage with (like memes or viral sound bites).

6. Diverse Creative Strategies: Test various content styles, including different tones, memes, and blog-style posts, alongside branded content to see what resonates best with your audience.

Why 3PB Matters:

Cost Efficiency: With a CPA half that of branded content, 3PB allows for more strategic spending and testing flexibility.

Higher Engagement: Third-party branding creates content that feels organic, boosting CTR and lowering CPC. This not only educates your audience subtly but also enhances retargeting efforts with branded ads.

Summary of Results: Over a 6-week test period, third-party branding outperformed branded content in terms of spend efficiency and engagement across three different brands:

• Brand 1: CPA reduced from $574 (branded) to $82 (3PB)
• Brand 2: CPA reduced from $47 (branded) to $28 (3PB)
• Brand 3: CPA reduced from $199 (branded) to $94 (3PB)

Conclusion: While 3PB isn't a one-size-fits-all solution, when used strategically, it can significantly enhance your digital marketing efforts. If you're not leveraging third-party branding yet, now's the time to start. The numbers don’t lie!